recovery, television, and the written word

I’m feeling much better today. Not fully recovered, but very much better.

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Yesterday my wife and I started watching a bit of Criss Angel’s show, Mindfreak. The steamroller thing was a bit crazy… many of the things we’ve seen him do, we have theories for how they could work (without real magic). Except the levitation. We suspect he uses magic tricks to cover up the very real supernatural abilities he employs. (Edit: There are theories here, and other explanations out there. After seeing him on that magician reality show go off on how psychics can’t be real, I no longer believe he has (or is aware of having) any supernatural abilities of his own.)

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There is a breed of person who, when Neil Gaiman points (recommends, suggests, petitions, asks, mentions), will leap to obey (buy, donate, give, bid, attend). These people will Googlebomb Penn Jillette’s name to show Neil Gaiman’s blog (link #3 as of the time of this writing), donate to various causes, purchase things, etc, etc. Fortunately Neil appears to be content not to abuse this power. I do not personally know anyone of said “rabid fan” breed.

On an entirely unrelated note, I have been reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (which by strange coincidence Neil Gaiman calls, “… funny, moving, scary, otherworldly, practical and magical, a journey through light and shadow – a delight to read…” etc. Of course that is not at all why I decided to buy the book and read it…)and enjoying it. Slowly (it is written in much the same style as the novels of Jane Austen).